Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transport system for transporting works.
Description of the Related Art
As a transport form for a small work represented by an electronic component, there is known a transport form that places a plurality of works on a tray and transports them at once. In a system that employs such a transport form, a process for works is performed by, for example, extracting the works from the tray one by one. After the process, each work is returned to its original position or placed on another tray as a processed work. Such a system often needs to manage the relationship between a work and a position on the tray or the presence/absence of a work at each placement position on the tray. To do this, there is proposed a system that shoots a tray and specifies the placement state of a work from image data. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-120530 discloses a system that employs a camera capable of shooting a whole tray at once in a specific area. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-232275 discloses a system that shoots a tray by a shooting apparatus provided for each tray transport line.
In a system that provides a dedicated area to shoot a tray, performs shooting by a shooting apparatus arranged in the dedicated area, and then performs a predetermined process, like the system of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-120530, it is necessary to transport the tray to the dedicated area for tray shooting, shoot the tray after completion of transport, and perform the predetermined process after completion of shooting. This may lower the transport efficiency until the start of the process. In addition, the shooting apparatus is relatively expensive in many cases. In a system that provides a shooting apparatus for each tray transport line, like the system of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-232275, the number of shooting apparatuses increases, resulting in an increase in cost.